A reading guide to comics and books

Tag: DC Comics

Barry Allen is so fast, he will be on the small and the big screen at the same time this year. He also is in the pages of his own comics. If you want to read some of his adventures on paper, here is a little guide to help start.

Who is Barry Allen?

Barry Allen is the most famous Flash, thanks to his various incarnations on the screen, but he is not the first one. He is actually a reinvention of the character that had appeared in 1940s comic books.

Created by writer Robert Kanigher and penciler Carmine Infantino, Barry first appeared in Showcase #4 (October 1956). Everything begins one evening at the Central City Police Lab where Barry is alone and working late. A lightning bolt shatters a case full of chemicals and spills all over Barry. Our police scientist survives this accident, but discovers his whole being and molecular structure has been accelerated. He is now able run at super-speed, vibrates through walls and more (like time travel).

Along with Barry introduction, a whole new Rogues Gallery was created with The Mirror Master, Mr. Element, The Top, Captain Cold, Hat Wave, Captain Boomerang, The Trickster, the Pied Piper, Super Gorilla Grodd, and Professor Zoom – The Reverse Fash.

It’s not always easy to follow the minor characters, especially with all the reboots and rebirths. Jean-Paul Valley who is also known as Azrael just made a comeback and I thought that I’ll dig up where he was during the last few years. That lead me to the beginning.

Who is Jean-Paul Valley aka Azrael in the DC Universe?

When we met Jean-Paul Valley, his father just died and made him his successor in the sacred Order of St. Dumas. He became their warrior known as the vigilante Azrael. He was not an enemy of Batman, but he eventually joined him and his allies in their fight to protect Gotham City.

We later discovered that Jean-Paul was created by ‘Mother’, a villain who worked with the Order of St. Dumas. For a time, Azrael did the dirty work the Order needed him to do, but Nightwing put him on the right path so he could help people. He then started to fight crime.

This time, I’m not waiting the end of the event. DC Comics had announced the program and there’s no reason for them to change it. That said, I’ll update this page if there’s something new, but it’s not Marvel we are talking about here.

What is Dark Nights: Metal?

Dark Nights: Metal is a Batman Event written by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo. The two collaborators are back with a new ambitious story about a mysterious metal and a lot of bat stuffs connected to the origin of the bat persona. No spoilers here !

It builds on elements introduced in Batman: Court of Owls and during the rest of the Snyder/Capullo run on the main bat New 52 series. It started in June and it will continue for a few months, the ending is announced for February. So, bookmark this article if you don’t want to miss anything.

There are a lot of characters in the DC Universe (in the Marvel one too) and it’s not always easy to track them down when they are not the star of their own ongoing series. I just got reminded of that when I started to find some good reads with Zatanna. She appeared in a lot of stories over the years, but rarely as the star of the show. So I made a list of the stories what to read with her. But first…

Who is Zatanna?

Created by Julius Schwartz, Gardner Fox and Murphy Anderson, Zatanna first appeared in Hawkman #4 (published in November 1964). She is known to be a stage illusionist as well as an actual magician, like her father Giovanni Zatara. She’s controlling her powers by speaking the words of her incantations spelled backwards.

I recently read that there will soon be some new story (in the rebirth era) that will take place after the Zero Year events. I’m still a bit confused about the continuity between the two eras, but I liked a lot Snyder’s run and I think it’s a good thing to build on what he wrote.

What Batman Zero Year is about?

Zero Year is a yearlong crossover event published between June 2013 and July 2014 and written by Scott Snyder and James Tynion IV. This story takes us back six years in the past and redefine the origin of Batman in The New 52.

Everything begins with Bruce Wayne’s return to Gotham City. He starts fighting the Red Hood gang. Those events will lead to the birth of the Batman and to a flood in Gotham that will leave him for dead. When he comes back, he has to free the city that has fallen and is now under the control of one of his worst enemies.

After The Lazarus Contract, I’d like to go back to another mini-event from DC. I quite like the way they’re cross-promote their series. It gives a cohesive vision to the DC Universe. In that case, to the batfamily world.

What is the Night of the Monster Men?

Night of the Monster Men is the first crossover of the ‘Rebirth’ – an interesting fact I think, for some reason. It’s a six-issue storyline from the pages of Batman, Detective Comics and Nightwing.

Written by Steve Orlando with Tom King (on Batman), James Tynion IV (on Detective Comics) and Tim Seeley (on Nightwing), the story began with a huge storm approaching Gotham City. Batman, Batwoman and Nightwing try and prepare for the worst, but they didn’t see coming enormous monsters rampaging through the streets! Batman will need all of his allies to unite in order to stop these mad science monsters from tearing their city apart!

I was quite busy the last few weeks, but I’ll have more time to write some reading guides from now on. I want to focus on comics a bit more, but not necessarily in a big way. I think that the smaller events could use some guidance too. When I read old stories, It’s always a bit confusing to need to check where to go in the middle of a run when you didn’t even know you’d need to do it. So, if I have this kind of problem, others must have too.

What’s The Lazarus Contract?

It’s a DC Comics mini-crossover event between three series : Titans, Teen Titans and Deahtstroke. The crossover was written by Dan Abnett, Benjamin Percy and Christopher Priest, with interior art from Brett Booth, Khoi Pham, Carlo Pagulayan and Paul Pelletier.

Amazon Affiliate Disclosure

HowToRead.Me is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. To find out more, as well as how to remove or block these, see here: Our Cookie Policy